Arcadia Foundation

Ahead of disputed Honduran presidential elections which are set to take place in five days, the government of current President Roberto Micheletti has recently stated that if the United States recognizes the vote, other countries would follow suit.

“Panama already said it would recognize us. The United States will recognize us. Two countries that are important to us: one close in the region, the other the most powerful country in the world,” Micheletti noted yesterday.

After a US-backed deal over whether Zelaya can be returned to power broke down, some Latin American countries threatened not to recognize the result of the election.

However, the White House has not given an official position on the election, but has suggested it will support the outcome whether or not Zelaya is reinstated.

This has been a very clear example of the lack of foreign policy experience Barack Obama brought to the United States government. While it is certainly too early to judge the U.S. President this early in his tenure, foreign policy does not seem to be his strong suit. Discombobulation is the theme of the day, perhaps masked as flexibility in the face of what has been anything but a summer of love in Honduras.

I’ll put it this way – when researching the background to the U.S. opinion of Honduran democracy, I had to look via google by date. This is because daily, that view changes, and constitutional democracy lay dormant  through osmosis.

The political priority in Honduras is, and must be, this Sunday’s presidential contest.

Hondurans are scheduled to vote in a regularly scheduled presidential election in a few days. The vote is critical to restoring democratic rule under a legitimately elected chief executive.

Since June, the country has been led by an interim government following the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. Since June, Zelaya has been trying to regain the presidency.

The resulting theatrics and circus atmosphere has, at times, threatened to degenerate into violence. That’s the type of chaos this Central American country can’t afford.

Electing a new president, not restoring a former one, is clearly the top priority, and a message urgently needed to be made clear by Washington.

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